2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

Marru wrote: »

I thought I would stay here in Somerset but would love the Lakes. Going to animal communication course to Windemere in June for a weekend (already paid for so won't muck up the challenge uh, except the petrol) and that will be my first trip up there. Have wanted to go for a long time thou.

Ok Nyk, we have finished now .

Marru

Uh, no sorry Nyk, we haven't I'll be quick, so look away...NOW

Marru, were we separated at birth? I also live in Somerset and would also like to live in the Lakes (put off by the hefty prices though) or ideally Scotland.:j

Which reminds me, on a different note - Nyk you can look now - I read the post about using the 29th Feb for something special (No, I didn't propose ) and asked OH where he thought we'd be by next Feb 29th. Apparently, we'll be in Latin America with a small child (ie our own, not one we've stolen ) - I'll be working full-time (as we'd get free accommodation, car and :eek: helpers - gardener, housekeeper, chauffeur - with my job, plus a hefty tax-free wedge) and he'll be looking after the LO and overseeing some sustainable engineering projects :rotfl:Where did the Good Life go in all that? Working abroad is something I had hoped to do before getting ill so maybe we will; I'd like my children to be bi-lingual if possible. VSO is also on the cards apparently - how on earth will we fit it all in in 4 years?!:rotfl:Oh, and we might get married too! Phew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it, and as for the expense... :eek:

EDIT: thanks for the link Mumzy, just ordered a sample no probs - perhaps try again?

mumzyof2

i just found this..it tells you how to make liquid soapnuts and it lasts longer http://soapnuts.wordpress.com/

sophiesmum_2

Well i almost got to town but the traffic was so bad i called into retail park instead. Fewer shoe shops but managed to find a decent pair of leather shoes for work in Matalan for £10. They will be okay until sandal weather arrives:rolleyes: .
Called to mums on way home and cut my brother's hair, as a thankyou was given carrier bag of heinz tinned stuff (brother works at heinz) .Also cut my DS3's hair and he washed my car in exchange:D so good result all round.

Just making a loaf now in breadmaker and will be batch cooking some chicken curry for OH later.
Overall not a bad day:D
Hope everyone else is having a good day.

mumzyof2

sophiesmum wrote: »

Well i almost got to town but the traffic was so bad i called into retail park instead. Fewer shoe shops but managed to find a decent pair of leather shoes for work in Matalan for £10. They will be okay until sandal weather arrives:rolleyes: .
Called to mums on way home and cut my brother's hair, as a thankyou was given carrier bag of heinz tinned stuff (brother works at heinz) .Also cut my DS3's hair and he washed my car in exchange:D so good result all round.

Just making a loaf now in breadmaker and will be batch cooking some chicken curry for OH later.
Overall not a bad day:D
Hope everyone else is having a good day.

I have had a great day i have made sausage casserole for our tea and have 23mins left of bread making Just hope it can be freezed?

bails

Good work Sophiesmum and Mumzy - I love the idea of exchanging skills for things, don't know hardly anyone here though so need to find a group to join at some point.
Off to make cottage pie with a tiny amount of quorn mince that's seen better days and lots of 'padding' veg

lyndasharp

I'm happy as my Feb spend has come in at £289.91, just a fraction under budget. As that includes holiday spending in France and lots of petrol to move house from Ripon to Swindon it's been a less expensive month than I was expecting. Today hasn't gone quite so well, think I've spent over a third of the budget in a day, but I really did need to renew my passport!!! At least it's only once every 10 years.

mah_jong

I have added up my totals for the year to date and changed my footer.

Food wise Feb was a good month, still have plenty in the freezer, and cupboards. I am making lots of soup for lunches. I had guests for a weekend end whilst that bumped up the shopping initially it meant I didn't need anything for the next few days bar milk and fruit.

So with my light DD reduced by 40 quid and Feb being short I have done not bad, March though is full of essential birthdays.

MarkyMarkD

LollopyBear wrote: »

Hi Marky,

For me personally, I don't want to get tied in with any kind of phone contract. Also, I have been with O2 so long I am overrun with free texts, minutes and extra credit being dumped into my account that I get an awful lot out of the £10-£15 a month I spend on it! Some months I don't even need to top up anything at all. I like having this freedom

Whilst I understand that some people don't like being tied down with a contract, the reality is that you are just as tied down with a PAYG phone - if you don't put money on the phone, eventually it won't work.

And whilst on a voucher claim-back style contract you do have some outgoings (£20 a month in my wife's case) you get the money back relatively quickly and over the course of a year you are £100-200 better off than someone who's been PAYGing.

Anyway, it's horses for courses - I was just interested to hear people's replies so thanks for responding.

MarkyMarkD

Marru wrote: »

Hi,

I am paying arm and a leg for my landline and broadband as (due to complicated circumstances - very long story) I am bound to BT's business contract . Come September I will definitely get out of my business contract and go for private but I still don't think I can go to the cheapest provider as reliability is crucial to me. I work from home remotely so not being able to get online equals no work equals no income. I haven't included costs from landline or broadband to my challenge as consider these as business costs and my semiprofessional book dealing in Amazon is so far covering the costs.

I have included my mobile in the challenge and am paying £20.- per month and getting 400 minutes included which means that LO can talk to her Dad once a day for 10-15 minutes on the phone.

Marru

Thanks again for the response. It is a pain that business landline and broadband contracts are generally more expensive than retail ones. I'm not convinced that reliability varies that much between providers once the service is up and running but people certainly seem to have different experiences during the installation/changeover period. Our transition to TalkTalk from Pipex was very smooth, actually, but there have admittedly been one or two times when service has disappeared for an hour or so. People who talk to me online will tell you that I do get disconnected, for a few seconds at a time, relatively frequently too. This is more disconcerting to me than anything critical.

We don't get as many "free" minutes as you are getting in your contract, but we could have a 100% cashback contract at a higher monthly cost with more included minutes. It's our choice to have the cheapest one available because it minimises the cashflow and the risk if the claiming goes wrong; also my wife's mobile usage is very low in any case.

wendyw1947

:A hello Nykmedia and "all the gang" am I too late or can I still join the challenge ?,have been reading this over the last couple of days and am still only on page 19,feel I know some of you already,if its ok I will get back to you with my figures,theres only the 2 of us now ,we have an empty nest,was gobsmacked to read you are a grandma Nykmedia [ had you down as a twentysomehing ] anyway I digress,I am new to this computing lark and only discoverd MSE a couple of months ago but am always saying "Martin says" I even said it to the manager of Currys and for my cheek got half price delivery charge and £20 off the price of my fridge/freezer anyway I'm off again ,back to this challenge I think its fantastic and cant wait to start if you'll have me that is:A